u/CLG-BluntBSE

First, I would like to extend the gratitude of the entire Common Logic team. This project would not be possible without:

1. The incredibly generous Sixth History license that Weather Factory has created and

2. The incredibly generous community that has grown up around the Secret Histories.

Almost one year ago I made the dubious decision to drop out of polite society and forsake a consistent salary to make The Matter of Being. I'd gotten around to my thirties, collected a few degrees of questionable utility (linguistics, an MFA disguised as a publishing degree), and racked up a mountain of debt just generally navigating American life. None of it was very satisfying and so, fuck it, I thought. Why not make video games the way I'd always thought about? There were a few abortive attempts, but then came one fateful competition: Blue Ocean Games' Rising Tide. I submitted TMoB's first trailer, and this community showed up in such force that they literally changed the voting rules about it. I think that's when I decided to do this 'for real'.

Since then, you have all shown me an incredible amount of support, and I've been humbled by the talents of Goldstarknight and Shep, who have joined me on this journey to create TMoB's art and music respectively. It's an incredible feeling when you create something and people seem to really *want* it, and although the journey has been very difficult materially, my will to live has been at an all-time high during this whole process.

I share all of this only to really say: Your support means the world to me, I'm so absolutely jazzed that I get to pay my incredible team, and it really feels like this is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. In exchange, I'm going to work my stupid tail off and deliver the best game I possibly can for everyone who has decided to support us.

With all the personal stuff out of the way, here's what's coming:

1. I will begin publishing regular development logs on a monthly basis so people can stay abreast of both the game's development, and also to keep track of what is happening with various backer rewards. Many of these rewards are collaborative, and it will be most appropriate to reach out to backers when the development demands new content. That means less frequent communication here on reddit, but hopefully more juicy content when we do post here.

2. In early September, once Kickstarter starts disbursing, I will re-enable all the glossy Discord features and start reaching out to backers about how they can get their particular rewards fulfilled, particularly if those rewards require shipping or the commissioning of a portrait.

3. We are continuing to target a Q3 2027 launch, per our Kickstarter details. Obviously there may be slip, but hopefully the demo that you've all had a chance to play shows that *most* of the work remaining is content development. We are planning to make some significant UI and stability improvements yet.

4. We didn't meet the target for Mac Support, but we're still going to try and swing it. Godot plays nicely on Mac, we just have some filesystem specific hurdles we need to solve.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported us on this journey so far! We're so excited that we get to make this game for you all :)

(And one day, when I'm working with my own IP, I hope I can use it to open up opportunities for others just like this.)

Hi, everyone!

The Matter of Being* is currently 80% funded on Kickstarter, but we're still a little short from our final goal and the campaign closes this Sunday. If you've been waiting for a chance to back our project, now is the time!

While missing our Kickstarter won't kill the project, it will definitely slow us down. Plus, we'd really love to honor our original scope and ship the game with all the community cameos that are part of the backer tiers: lore fragments, poems, custom portraits, sponsored items, and more. Goldstarknight and I have also been fawning over the wallpaper concepts we want to release for you all!

So, if you want to see all of these juicy tidbits, and maybe add some of your own, please consider pledging in this last stretch, or sharing with friends who might be interested!

Tangentially, enjoy some little character cards we've been working on for future marketing :)

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tmob/the-matter-of-being

*The Matter of Being is a sort of visual-novel/management game set in the Secret Histories, which is made possible thanks to the Sixth History Community License. It plays like Crusader Kings if it was exclusively character events. Or maybe it's Suzerain if, instead of being president, you were a rogue spirit on the run from the Hours. Facing divine punishment, you're on a mission to renounce your immortality and claw your way into the mortal world once and for all. To do this you'll tempt summoners to keep you anchored to their world, and you'll manipulate their stories and relationships until you can get the power you need to achieve your great descent.

Demo Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4664400/The_Matter_of_Being_Demo/

Howdy, all! Goldstarknight, the marvelous artist behind The Matter of Being, a Secret Histories fan-game currently raising money on Kickstarter, wrote a lovely article that shares his approach to developing our character portraits.

Usually I'll post the text of our articles directly here so you don't have to click through, but this one has an awful lot of images, so I hope you'll check it out here.

You'll learn about how we manipulate eye-line to communicate a character's power, see what props link our characters, and see a few faces that we haven't posted here yet. You'll also see some ideas and poses that we wound up scrapping, and learn why.

Enjoy!

This isn't about the Suzerain universe, so forgive me, but I am working on a game that plays remarkably similarly to it, which is to say it's a sort of turn-based, location-driven, resource-managey visual novel thing, so I think this community would like it. It's even got the same centered text and a world map!

The game is called The Matter of Being, and it's set in the Secret Histories (Cultist Simulator, Book of Hours, Traveling at Night), and in it you take on the role of a doomed spirit trying to escape divine punishment by renouncing your immortality and being born into the mortal world. You do this by cultivating relationships with humans so they keep summoning you into the mortal world, and you manipulate their stories and relationships to each other to build up your power and ultimately satisfy your goals.

We are planning to launch the game with a collection of playable spirits that have different win conditions, giving you canonical reasons to replay the game.

If that sounds up your alley, we need your help to make it happen, so please take a look at our Kickstarter page : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tmob/the-matter-of-being

We also have a playable demo that has "very positive" reviews on Steam!

I won't post about it here again. Thanks for taking a look!

The hour is 5:00 PM EST, and so first...

>We call upon the Vagabond, who tells her tale to the willing and the unwilling...

Have you ever wanted to be a tangled knot of powerful limbs yearning for release? How about a haunted nun of the Watchman, or a sacred deer steeped in the blood of arrogant cultists? If that sounds like you, yearn no longer: The Matter of Being is now live on Kickstarter!

If you hang around this subreddit you might have seen some of our art. You might have even played our rough (but well-received!) demo. If you haven't, though, here's a quick introduction:

The Matter of Being is a sort of visual-novel/management game set in the Secret Histories*. It plays like Crusader Kings if it was exclusively character events. Or maybe it's Suzerain if, instead of being president, you were a rogue spirit on the run from the Hours. Facing divine punishment, you're on a mission to renounce your immortality and claw your way into the mortal world once and for all. To do this you'll tempt summoners to keep you anchored to their world, and you'll manipulate their stories and relationships until you can get the power you need to achieve your great descent.

We're taking this project to Kickstarter because we have plans for both 'big' and 'little' versions of this game, and the design of the game is unusually scalable in both directions. But let's get into what we're about first.

AN ANTI-POWER FANTASY: If you were an immortal being, what would have to happen to make you want to give it up? This is the angle of TMoB, and we're really interested in exploring not only the motivations that could drive such a horrible decision, but in exploring what it might cost the people close to you. Mortals might be pawns, but they grow on you like a stubborn fungus, and you won't have enough power to save them all if you want to stay out of Nowhere.

MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES AND WIN CONDITIONS: One of our biggest gripes in branching narrative is this: If you play true to type, you'll get a satisfying ending for your playstyle. But what about all the stuff you missed? You can reload the game, but it can feel a bit artificial to go make unusual choices just to get all the content. The core conceit of TMOB is that by giving the player different win conditions, we can give people a canonical reason to explore different routes in the story. The Raw Prophet benefits from building a big, amorous network of followers. The Deserter wants to fall madly in love with a single person who will take their place at the [REDACTED]. The Maryag wants to chew on everyone's bones.

RELATIONSHIP MANIPULATION: TMOB gameifies relationships directly. Do you have influence over someone? Then you get a portion of their stats. Do their connections like or dislike you? Then their opinions drift accordingly over time. There are also unique story events tied to new introductions, breakups, and reconciliations that the player can explore and exploit. And take note: There's a reason the stat is 'influence' and not 'opinion.'

OPEN SOURCE AMBITIONS: The Sixth History Community License, which makes this game possible, is incredibly generous and we want to proceed in the spirit of that license. If we reach our original funding goals (which were set by that time we were told we could win $100k, and then told we couldn't), we intend to release everything we have rights to for unlimited commercial use.

If this sounds up your alley, check it out our campaign page. We need your support to make this project happen, and we have lots of little opportunities for backers to add to the game's lore, encounters, and more! I'm also, uh, selling the last words of my hitwoman witch of a mother, if that's your kind of thing! (She'd get a kick out of it, don't worry.)

I'll be sharing a few more posts that get into some of the character design and reward concepts over the next few weeks, but mostly I'll be keeping updates on our dedicated socials so as to avoid spamming this place. If you have no budget but want to support us, reposting our stuff is annoying but very beneficial for us since we have no marketing dollars (oops).

SOCIALS:

Tumblr

Twitter

BlueSky

Instagram

Thanks for all your support so far! We're looking forward to making the best game that we can for you all. Feel free to drop any questions you have about the project below!

*This is made possible by Weather Factory's Sixth History Community License. The Matter of Being is being developed by Common Logic, which is in no way affiliated with Weather Factory.

From The Matter of Being.

moth and edge go snip snip snip

Hi there! I currently work with an amazing artist on a revenue-share project: The Matter of Being. Goldstarknight's art has really elevated the project to an incredible degree. The portraits in this slideshow are from the game, but he has a phenomenal range and really enjoys working with pixel art in particular.

His rates orbit 30 euros an hour, and each of these character portraits was probably the product of 3-4 hours of work, give or take some art direction meetings.

He's organized, really interested in bringing visual storytelling his work, and I really just can't say enough good things about him.

Check him out, and tell him Blunt sent you: https://goldstarknight.carrd.co/

You can also DM me if you want a direct introduction via Discord.

Happy(?) pride.

are they in love?

>!yes!<

Art as ever by goldstarknight

"maybe include one of them gnostic gang-signs."

he passed within or something idk i cant read

art, as ever, by: https://goldstarknight.carrd.co/

Hi all! I found that some of my players simply couldn't run my game when I was using the Forward+ renderer. Unfortunately, I had built my entire game around the use of Spotlight3D and its texture projector, which only works in Forward+!

In order to support the compatibility renderer, I made this shader that applies a decal to any intersecting meshes inside the volume of the mesh with the shader. It emulates the luminous appearance of the spotlight3D, which is what I used that node for in the first place.

Enjoy!

GodotShaders Link

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My game is a narrative RPG set in the world of Cultist Simulator (with Weather Factory's permission). In it, you play a raw prophet who is trying to become mortal by manipulating occultists in modern-day Boston. We have a playable demo and a Kickstarter so please check them out if that sounds up your alley!

Hi, all.

I (and many others, it seems) have had this experience on the preview page where you'll upload an image, the "save" button will be grayed out, and nothing in the world you can do will make it enabled again.

In a fit, I finally did the following:

I right clicked the save button, and hit 'inspect'. In this element, you'll see both "data-disabled" and "disabled." In the broken state of the button, "disabled" seems to equal "", which is a falsy value and probably the source of this bug. Kickstarter, if you're reading this, look here.

Anyway, you can just type in "disabled=false" and "data-disabled=false", and then the button will be clickable, and you can submit as normal.

This bug has driven me up the wall for weeks. I am sharing this to help anyone else who encounters it.

If you found this at all useful, and you want to play a game set in the world of Cultist Simulator, please follow my campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tmob/the-matter-of-being

It was a VERY close race between this meme and the king crucible submission, but cats_hurricane, congratulations! Please enjoy your rendering, plus: The Puppy Divided!

These two images will be printed out and shipped with any physical art that goes out for the TMOB Kickstarter.

Thanks to everyone who joined in!

Art credit, as always, to: https://goldstarknight.carrd.co/

Hi, all!

It's time to vote on your favorite doodle! Reminder, whichever doodle gets the most votes will be rendered by the illustrious goldstarknight, the artist who does all the illustrations for The Matter of Being.

Voting closes at midnight on Monday, May 18th, EST!

ORIGINAL COMPETITION POST

VOTING LINK

Found this piece of sterling silver (stamped 925), hanging from a fence bordering a cell tower in the middle of the woods in an easement I was walking out for work. Any idea what it is? I’m guessing bracelet due to the size and rolled edges. Could it be an alien bracelet given to an ancient human civilization? Some persons homemade silver bracelet? Let’s hear y’all’s thoughts.

Pic 1.- front side

Pic 2.- back side

Pic 3.- pic of the 925 stamp

ADEPTS!

Does your HEAD swim with VISIONS? Are you UNABLE to draw, or does the law FORBID you from painting? Join the Secret Histories DOODLE JAM before MAY 17, 2026!

How it works:

1. You send us your goofiest Secret Histories meme, shitpost, or doodle in the form below.
2. We all vote on the best one.
3. Goldstarknight (the illustrious artist behind The Matter of Being) will RENDER your doodle to the very maximum of his considerable ability. You will receive the original files.
4. Your art will be included among other physical gifts that are sent out as part of TMOB's upcoming Kickstarter.
5. If the Kickstarter is funded, you will be credited for your contribution in-game.

RULES: 

1. One entry per participant.
2. Your doodle must be square or conform to A4 aspect ratio ( 1240 x 1754, for example).
3. Must be at at least tangentially related to the Secret Histories
4. Voting will be managed through an online tournament bracket. Discussions and reminders will be posted The Matter of Being's Discord, but joining the Discord is not a requirement for participation. Feel free to post your creations here as you make them.
5. Please provide your doodle in .png or .jpg format

Submissions will only be considered through the form below. Submissions close on midnight EST on May 17, 2026. Voting start date TBD, but probably May 19, 2026.

https://forms.gle/AVyZn6pHwLbxYQm78

I'm making a game where you play the 'devil' in a game about deals with the devil. It's set in the world of Cultist Simulator (under WF's Community License), and the demo is out now!

If this sounds up your alley, we're trying to get 50 reviews before Next Fest in June!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4664400/The_Matter_of_Being_Demo/

Description:

>Strike Faustian bargains, thwart divine punishment, and claw your way into the world of the living once and for all. In The Matter of Being you take the role of a doomed spirit who has been excommunicated from the mysterious otherworld known as the Mansus. The Hours will never absolve your crimes, and so your only hope is to become what some mortals spend their whole lives trying to escape: You must become flesh and blood.

TLDR: If you are interested in supporting this project, the single most helpful thing you can do is leave a review to give us juice ahead of Next Fest in June. We are releasing this early alpha to prove we can make a game at all. There will be bugs.

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Hello, everyone!

We (Common Logic) are developing a fan-game under the Sixth History Community License called The Matter of Being. It's a sort of resource and relationship management game/visual novel that puts you in the role of a Mansus-spirit. Facing divine punishment, you manipulate cultists into keeping you in the mortal world (and beyond the reach of the Hours) until you can renounce your immortality once and for all.

This community has been super supportive of this project, but it will only be possible to complete if we raise a significant ($USD 30K) sum on Kickstarter. I feel itchy about asking for that kind of money without offering some proof of our ability to deliver, and so I've decided to make a playable alpha available to the public.

It's not perfectly polished, it needs editing, and there are known bugs. Still, our playtesters seem to be enjoying themselves and we think it proves that we have the ability to make and write the game. If you play it and think to yourself: "this is off to a great start, but it needs another year in the oven," then my mission is accomplished! That's a very different thought from "who are these people asking for money and can they even make a game at all?"

So, come take a look! We'll be fixing up bugs and performance issues in this demo through June, which is when we'll participate in Steam Next Fest, with plans to formally kick off the Kickstarter in July. The number one way to support us at this juncture is to leave a review on Steam before Next Fest. The Algorithm, that most wretched God from Steel, smiles upon those who have many reviews!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4664400/The_Matter_of_Being_Demo/

If you'd rather watch someone play it, Ic0n, who does some CS/Book of Hours streams, will be playing it around 5pm EST here: https://www.twitch.tv/justanic0n

If you are already sold and want to follow our Kickstarter (which should go live shortly after Next Fest), please sign up here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tmob/the-matter-of-being We'll start to feel pretty confident around 1,000 followers.

Lastly, if you want to be involved in the day-to-day development, or join some upcoming Secret Histories art and game jams, you can check us out on Discord: https://discord.gg/CAE6atnwqw

Thanks so much for your support so far! We really hope you see the promise in what we've done, and can imagine what we can do with some time and an actual budget!

PS: There's a secret on the Kickstarter page for people who like that kind of thing.

First, I acknowledge that nobody's entitled to be in any particular festival, and I have a somewhat niche game. Still, I've been denied to even extremely on brand festivals, like "Witches, Wizards, and Warlocks." My game literally puts you in the role of a spirit negotiating Faustian pacts with cultists.

Having just found out I won't be part of Day of the Devs, or part of like five other showcases I submitted to, I turn to Reddit for advice: Am I missing something spectacularly obvious with my Steam page? I'm really not trying to be a whiner, I just see games that seem to have about as much polish - or less - than mine getting into these same fests and I'm pondering if there's some glaring issue at work here.

My game has a modest little discord of some 270 people, it's sitting at about 2,000 wishlists pre-demo. Nothing crazy, but I thought I was presenting it okay. This string of rejections just has me feeling kind of curious.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3869880/The_Matter_of_Being/